ENEMIES OP HONEY-BEES 147 



top of the wings is a subdued bluey-grey with a white 

 flash on the two outside flight feathers. The beak is light 

 blue tipped with black, and the eye dull blue-black in 

 colour. The Sordid Wood Swallow is very daring: no 

 amount of noise disturbs it. 



The best way to rid an apiary of these pests is to 

 shoot a few birds and hang them on the wires of the fence. 

 It is certainly effective for frightening the marauders. 

 Should one happen to make an attempt to rest on the 

 fence and a dead bird suddenly move with the breeze the 

 Wood Swallow will dart back in a state of great excite- 

 ment. One season the author lost fully 50% of all young 

 queens reared owing to the ravages of these birds. Other 

 birds come and go and possibly eat a few bees when 

 short of food, but the wood swallow makes a regular 

 practice of it. 



The Australian Bee-Eater (Merops ornatus) is some- 

 times responsible for eating the young queens whilst out 

 on a mating flight, but as the birds are rather scarce and 

 are migratory in habit, they are not so destructive as 

 the Wood Swallows. The Bee-Eater is also pictured in 

 Fig. 63 (the small bird with the distinctive long tail 

 feathers in the top corner of the picture). 



Young ducks cultivate a taste for bees and occasion- 

 ally a sting will penetrate the throat and cause death. 

 At the author's "Sawpit Creek" apiary the "Welcome" 

 or House Swallows {Hirundo neoxena) built a mud nest 

 in the honey house and the bees constantly followed the 

 swallows when flying about the apiary. The little birds 

 appeared to be very much afraid, darting hither and 

 thither in excited efforts to dodge the annoying insects. 

 As far as could be observed the bees were unable to 

 overtake the birds. Of course the swiftness of the flight 

 rendered close observation impossible, but the bees 

 always appeared a foot or eighteen inches behind the 

 birds. The "Wood Swallows" by the way, are not true 

 swallows. 



